Top 5 Overlooked Stunning Buildings

(MCT)—While most travelers know to visit the Musee d’Orsay while in Paris or the Guggenheim Museum when in New York City, there are hundreds of buildings that get overlooked, either because of their location or simply the number of sites in the city deemed worth seeing. With jaw-dropping structures in mind, the members and editors of travel website VirtualTourist.com have put together a list of the “Top 10 Overlooked Stunning Buildings.”

1. Military History Museum — Dresden, Germany

A discussion of overlooked stunning buildings caused multiple VirtualTourist members to immediately mention Dresden, Germany. Though many of the city’s buildings were severely damaged in the bombing campaigns of World War II, Dresden has worked to restore its landmarks including the Royal Palace with its incredible sgraffiti (a mural technique involving multiple layers of plaster in contrasting colors) and the Frauenkirche, a Protestant church with outstanding Baroque architecture. However, a new landmark has emerged that deserves proper attention: the redesigned Dresden Museum of Military History. The original building had a number of reincarnations, but once Germany unified a design competition was held for an extension and rebranding of the museum. Daniel Libeskind, perhaps best known for winning the competition to rebuild Ground Zero in New York City, designed a bold interruption of the original building’s symmetry with a glass and steel wedge slicing through the structure. According to the architect’s website, the new extension with its openness and transparency was envisioned to reflect the new democratic society of Germany, in comparison to the original rigid building and the country’s authoritarian past.

2. The Mezquita — Cordoba, Spain

Spain’s history of occupation and religious overhaul is no better exemplified than through the Mezquita in Cordoba. Nestled between Seville and Granada in the rolling hills of Andalucía, Cordoba was once the capital of the Moorish emirate in Spain. The Great Mosque was built as the primary site of the Muslim religion in the country, complete with traditional Muslim architectural elements like arches and complex woodwork. In the 13th century, following the Reconquista by the Christians, the entire complex was revamped into a Cathedral now known as the Mezquita. The building is a rare example of Mudejar style, or the mixing of Muslim and Christian elements that occurred when the two cultures lived side by side. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it is a must see for a visitor to Southern Spain.

3. The Jantar Mantar — Jaipur, India

A visit to Jaipur usually includes the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) and the Amer Fort, but we have another great landmark for upcoming travelers to India. The Jantar Mantar is an astronomical observation site in Jaipur that stands out as the most significant and best preserved of India’s historic observatories. Unlike modern observatories with telescopes and special lenses, the Jantar Mantar was built in the early 18th century for observing astronomical events and positions with the naked eye. Among the twenty-plus fixed instruments at the compound, a VirtualTourist member noted that his favorite was the Jai Praksh Yantra, a pair of hemispheres made from marble and sunken into the ground that is capable of determining both the ecliptic pole during the day and the celestial coordinates at night. Multiple members suggested hiring a guide to better understand the different instruments and their uses since many were used for purposes other than simple astronomy, like telling time and predicting monsoon weather.

4. The Hanoi Museum — Hanoi, Vietnam

While most visitors to Vietnam focus on temples and colonial buildings, a new modern museum in the country’s capital might change that tradition. The Hanoi Museum, designed by GMP Architekten of Germany, incorporates some common themes of museum construction with a new twist, literally. Photos of the museum’s interior, with its white walls and large spiral ramp, somewhat resemble Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, except the exterior of the Hanoi Museum completely contrasts the former’s exterior. The Hanoi Museum resembles an inverted pyramid with four levels of descending squares, the bottom level significantly smaller than even the first floor. This significantly smaller bottom level means that the surrounding gardens and water features almost appear to begin beneath the building leading visitors from the outside in. This was also taken into account when planning the gardens and surrounding area of the museum. Visitors encounter exhibits from the history of Hanoi and reconstructed traditional Vietnamese villages upon entering the museum landscape and then can enter the museum from any one of the four sides.

5. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — Boston, Mass.

Few house museums have the history, collection, and longstanding influence within the community as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. One of the foremost female art patrons of her time, Stewart Gardner was a true character who enjoyed travel, adventure, and entertaining in a way that was somewhat scandalous for a lady of her social breeding and education in Victorian Boston. The museum, located in the Fenway area of Boston, was actually constructed after Stewart Gardener realized her Back Bay manse could not house her growing collection. Built in 1902, the museum is modeled after a 15th century Venetian palazzo. Among the more than 2,500 pieces in her collection, highlights include multiple Sargents, Whistlers and Titian’s Europa. In addition to the building’s storied legacy, the museum has continued to evolve its role in Boston’s artistic and cultural future most recently by adding a new wing to the historic palace in order to relieve pressure on the historic spaces and spread out the collection. The new wing was designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano and opened in January 2012.

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